M&S Food
All that glitters is bold: How we brought M&S Christmas 2023 to life
The Challenge: Create a unique, magical Christmas experience for M&S shoppers, showcasing the brand as the ultimate one-stop holiday destination. We needed to develop a cohesive campaign that would work across all departments while capturing the season’s enchantment and driving significant sales growth.
Our approach: Magic that spans the entire store
1. Created a shimmering visual identity
​
We developed a stunning blue and purple-hued glitter backdrop that was filmed rather than digitally created, ensuring the magical sparkle translated beautifully across both static and moving formats.
2. Crafted a luxurious brand language
​​
We reimagined the core M&S typeface with a luxurious gold treatment and developed a magical tone of voice that elevated product ranges and created a sense of wonder throughout the customer journey.
3. Extended the magic to every touchpoint
For the first time, we created tailored treatments for Food to Order and M&S Bank, introducing seasonal sparkles and gold ribbon elements that maintained the campaign's cohesion while addressing specific department needs.
The solution: Transforming stores into festive wonderlands
In-store experience: Brought the 2D creative to life with custom 3D centerpieces and specially-lit elements that created an immersive shopping environment with genuine "wow factor."
Multimedia presence: Maintained campaign consistency across digital platforms, print advertising, and broadcast media, ensuring the shimmering aesthetic reached customers wherever they encountered the brand.
Department-specific applications: Adapted the core creative elements for Clothing, Home, Food, Gifts, Bank and International Markets, ensuring a unified look while highlighting each department's unique festive offerings.
Digital integration: Carefully implemented the sparkling aesthetic across the website, app, and social media channels to create a seamless omnichannel experience.
Food to order spotlight: A dedicated creative treatment gave this crucial festive offering its moment to shine within the broader campaign framework.
The results:
Magic transformed into business success
According to M&S’s sales figures, the retailer emerged as the 2023 "Christmas winner", seeing a whopping 10.5% growth in Food sales, a 4.8% uplift in Clothing and Home and an outstanding total growth in group sales of 7.2%.
“Everyone at M&S is thrilled at how this year's scheme has landed. What was most incredible was Whippet's expertise and vision to drive the concept further than we anticipated while working at speed. The team are a joy to work with and we couldn't be happier.”
Sharry Cramond, Marketing Director, M&S Food and Masterbrand and Director of Loyalty, M&S